Wednesday, 6 May 2015

The Whanau Ora scam

It was not easy to describe what it is or what it has achieved. We could not get a consistent explanation of the aims of the initiatives in Whānau Ora from the joint agencies or other people that we spoke to. So far, the situation has been unclear and confusing to many of the public entities and whānau.

The aim with any good scam is to make it unclear and confusing, so no surprises there.

What is surprising is that Auditor General appears so surprised to stumble across a scam so successfully pulled off out in the open that, like the Purloined Letter, he can’t fully see it for what it is.

That much is fairly clear even from the Auditor General’s findings on funding, to whit:

During the first four years, total spending on Whānau Ora was $137.6 million…. Nearly a third of the total spending was on administration…

You see? A very well-paying scam … if you’re inside that tent clipping the ticket.

What Whanau Ora is is primarily welfare for separatist welfare providers – for the likes of Welfare of John Tamihere and Rongo Wetere to keep them in the manner to which they’ve become accustomed – for a Browntable of well-heeled ambulance chasers – for plane-loads of bone-carving wearers heading down to Wellington to pick up their cheques -- with the poor saps these soaks supposedly represent right at the end of the line for getting helped.

Because the poor saps being kept poor are just an excuse for the scam to carry on.

So what has the scam achieved?

It has achieved a great deal indeed … for all those inside the tent.

What it achieved for the Maori Party was to buy them the backing of welfare providers – and as you can see I mean “buy” in the very literal sense. Sure, it’s been hard to keep the backers inside the tent as bigger game seemed to appear elsewhere, but for a while at least it bought support for the new party.

And what it achieved for the Key Government was to buy the backing of the Maori Party – “buy” here being used in the very political sense of buying the Maori Party’s votes, with which it was able to stay in power.

So quite a great deal indeed was achieved if you’re one of the ones in power.

No wonder supporters of the Key Government remain to this day supporters of the separatist scam.

Because, is there really any difference in principle between the cronyism that gives money and favour to Fletchers, Rio Tinto and the shareholders and note-holders of Sky City and South Canterbury Finance, and the cronyism that gives money to tribal elites clipping the Whanau Ora ticket?

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